Tag: tech

1. Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation
Google has been forced to shut down a data analysis system it was using to develop a censored search engine for China after members of the company’s privacy team raised internal complaints that it had been kept secret from them, The Intercept reports.
The internal rift over the system has had massive ramifications, effectively ending work on the censored search engine, known as Dragonfly, according to two sources familiar with the plans. The incident represents a major blow to top Google executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai, who have over the last two years made the China project one of their main priorities. (The Intercept)
2. Frustrated Shared-Bike Riders Go to Ofo in Search of Refunds
Users o

SAN FRANCISCO — When lawmakers asked YouTube, a unit of Google, to provide information about Russian manipulation efforts, it did not disclose how many people watched the videos on its site that were created by Russian trolls.Facebook did not release the comments that its users made when they viewed Russian-generated content. And Twitter gave only scattered details about the Russian-controlled accounts that spread propaganda there.The tech companies’ foot-dragging was described in a pair of reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee published on Monday, in what were the most detailed accounts to date about how Russian agents have wielded social media against Americans in recent years.In the reports, Google, Twitter and Facebook (which also owns Instagram) were described by researche

skylarvision / PixabayCybersecurity is something that is on everyone’s minds these days. From the risks of potential hackers to phishing schemes, we’re always wondering what new threat will come to the surface. In addition to these problems, website owners have their own worries about security as well.Any website owner should take steps to ensure the security of their website, and small business owners are no different. Especially if you’re in the work of eCommerce, keeping your customer’s and business’s data protected is critical. You can bolster your website security in many ways, but one of the core aspects you can focus on is understanding the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.What Are HTTP and HTTPS?You’ve probably heard of HTTP before. It’s that thing that comes before a URL when

Bicycles in the Google logo colours outside the headquarters of US technology company Google in Mountain View, California. Photo: PA
Is big tech too big? In the past year, interest has grown in the idea that the giants of Silicon Valley have morphed into monopolies. Tim Wu of Columbia Law School argues they should be broken up: Facebook should relinquish Instagram and WhatsApp; Google should give up YouTube and DoubleClick; Amazon should spin off Amazon Web Services. Such arguments have ceased to be the preserve of progressives. Even President Donald Trump is said to have “wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust or competition law.”
We’ll hear a lot more about breaking up big tech in 2019. However, there are significant problems with anti-trust law that

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a big idea with an equally big opportunity. AI is slated to add $15.7 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, according to research by PwC, and it's going to change how we use transportation, and even how we do our jobs.
However, AI's potential doesn't mean much to investors unless they understand how companies are using and benefiting from this technology. So to help you understand how companies will make money from AI, let's look at what Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) are a

â An argument often made against antitrust action is that the technology industry is dynamic, and that todayâs dominant predator can become tomorrowâs prey. Nokia once dominated mobile phones but lost its standing to Samsung and Apple in the smartphone era.Similarly, Intel, once so overwhelming a force in the semiconductor industry that it was a frequent target of antitrust cases, is struggling to keep pace with a shifting industry. My colleague Cade Metz explained how Amazon is the latest tech company to start building its own chips, threatening Intelâs grip on the server chip market.â Itâs rare for a bail hearing to make international news, but this was no ordinary arrest.Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the tech behemoth Huawei and a daughter of the companyâs fo

Photo: GettyYear In ReviewWe look back at the best, worst, and most significant moments of the year, and look forward to next year. The tech world told a lot of lies in 2018, and it was caught in those lies at what feels like an unprecedented rate. Some Silicon Valley players even began to wake up to the lies they told themselves over the years. With such a flurry of falsehoods, it’s worth taking a look back to see who went big in the year that public trust in tech really started to tank.For many reasons, there’s been a lot of handwringing over what reporters should and should not call a “lie.” Some have argued that one definition of a lie (“an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue with intent to deceive”) is difficult to prove because it’s im

TOKYO - - Information technology giants like Google and Facebook should face greater antitrust oversight in Japan to prevent them from abusing their dominant market positions to stifle competition and infringe on consumer privacy, according to a government report compiled Wednesday .The report suggests considering intellectual property, such as patents relating to data and artificial intelligence, as well as researchers on staff when making valuations of companies. Such a move would be geared at restraining the deep-pocketed companies from snapping up startups that could become future competitors.The dominance of the big four American tech companies -- Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.com -- and how they use their huge arsenals of data has become an issue of concern for the governme

The defining question of the 21st century is pretty simple: who owns what? Who owns the telecommunications infrastructure that powers our mobile devices? Who owns the OS that powers those devices? Who owns our data?
Today, we see these intersecting arcs with two prominent tech leaders mired in legal and political processes.
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In Canada, we have day three(!) of the bail hearing for Huawei head of finance Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), who was arrested at the request of the U.S. a little more than a week ago. And on Capitol Hill today, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, is testifying in front of

For the record, Meng Wanzhou – the chief financial officer of the Chinese high-tech giant Huawei Technologies – was arrested in Canada last week for her involvement in violating American sanctions on Iran.